Thesis (M. Phil.)--Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 40-42). Also available in electronic version. Access restricted to campus users.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Industrial and Systems Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008. / Committee Chair: Anton Kleywegt; Committee Member: Dong Jun Wu; Committee Member: Ellis Johnson; Committee Member: George L. Nemhauser; Committee Member: Pinar Keskinocak.

Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2006. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains viii, 77 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 58-59).

There are three main factors affecting the stability of a palletized load that is unitized by a stretch wrapping mechanism. These factors include the type of unitized load, wrapping configuration and shipping method. The wrapping configuration is determined on the basis of the type of unitized load and shipping method. For this study, the aforementioned components were referred to as the package, the product, and the distribution environment. These components come together to make up a stretch wrapping system. The package corresponds to the stretch wrap film that is packaging the unitized load and pallet. The product corresponds to the goods placed on the pallet to be packaged by the stretch wrapper. The distribution environment corresponds to the hazards that the packaged product will encounter in transit. This study was designed to observe and understand the interactions between each of the components of the stretch wrap system. Prior to stretch wrapping a pallet of product, the film is elongated or pre-stretched. The elastic nature of the stretch wrap forces the film to conform around the palletized load. It is hypothesized that the film force that the stretch wrap applies to the palletized load contributes to improved load containment. Hence, the objective of this study was to determine the existence of a correlation between percentage pre-stretch to change in film force and load containment. For the study, a range of pre-stretched unitized loads were subjected to ISTA 3E distribution testing. Simultaneously the film force was monitored during the period of distribution testing. Subsequent to distribution testing, the load dispersion was quantified. The data obtained from this test suggested that there is no correlation between percentage pre-stretch and change in film force or load containment. The study also compared three methods of calculating pre-stretch: the marking wheel procedure, tapeless measure, and film cut and weigh. It was found that the most consistent method was the marking wheel procedure, followed by the cut and weigh procedure, and the tapeless measure procedure.

This dissertation deals with the solution of three inverse problems in structural mechanics. The first one is load updating for finite element models (FEMs). A least squares fitting is used to identify the load parameters. The basic studies are made for geometrically linear and nonlinear FEMs of beams or frames by using a four-noded curved beam element, which, for a given precision, may significantly solve the ill-posed problem by reducing the overall number of degrees of freedom (DOF) of the system, especially the number of the unknown variables to obtain an overdetermined system. For the basic studies, the unknown applied load within an element is represented by a linear combination of integrated Legendre polynomials, the coefficients of which are the parameters to be extracted using measured displacements or strains. The optimizer L-BFGS-B is used to solve the least squares problem. The second problem is the placement optimization of a distributed sensing fiber optic sensor for a smart bed using Genetic Algorithms (GA), where the sensor performance is maximized. The sensing fiber optic cable is represented by a Non-uniform Rational B-Splines (NURBS) curve, which changes the placement of a set of infinite number of the infinitesimal sensors to the placement of a set of finite number of the control points. The sensor performance is simplified as the integration of the absolute curvature change of the fiber optic cable with respect to a perturbation due to the body movement of a patient. The smart bed is modeled as an elastic mattress core, which supports a fiber optic sensor cable. The initial and deformed geometries of the bed due to the body weight of the patient are calculated using MSC/NASTRAN for a given body pressure. The deformation of the fiber optic cable can be extracted from the deformation of the mattress. The performance of the fiber optic sensor for any given placement is further calculated for any given perturbation. The third application is stiffened panel optimization, including the size and placement optimization for the blade stiffeners, subject to buckling and stress constraints. The present work uses NURBS for the panel and stiffener representation. The mesh for the panel is generated using DistMesh, a triangulation algorithm in MATLAB. A NASTRAN/MATLAB interface is developed to automatically transfer the data between the analysis and optimization processes respectively. The optimization consists of minimizing the weight of the stiffened panel with design variables being the thickness of the plate and height and width of the stiffener as well as the placement of the stiffeners subjected to buckling and stress constraints under in-plane normal/shear and out-plane pressure loading conditions. / Ph. D.

A study was conducted to set up an automated system for the use of industrial robots in frequently changing palletizing applications. The system consists of an industrial robot (IBM Manufacturing System 7545), an IBM PC, a gripper carousel storage system, a quick-change mechanism, and a robot gripper. The system is set up to enable a minimum of operator intervention. Hardware aspects (quick-change mechanism and gripper storage) as well as dynamic software generation for different palletizing applications were considered in the research project. The research effort involved both software and hardware developments. A FORTRAN program was developed to generate pallet patterns based on dynamic input of package and platform parameters. The geometric pattern was then used to create an appropriate AML/E program to drive the robot through the desired motion sequence. This program was then compiled and downloaded to the robot. Hardware aspects of the research were focused on the development of a system to permit dynamic changing of end of arm tooling. This included the development of a quick-change mechanism and a gripper carousel storage system. The quick-change mechanism included interfaces for electronic signals, air, and vacuum lines. A vacuum gripper was also designed for package handling. / M.S.

Extruded aluminium has become the material of choice for building envelope owing to its lightness, wide range of possibilities for profile design, durability and the eco-friendly attitude. In the light of recent technological developments in metal and glass industries, there has been various new approaches towards aluminum curtain wall systems which are mostly preferred by architects in high-rise buildings. Herein, the panel curtain wall system is determined as innovative and the modern aluminium curtain wall system. Furthermore, in the recent prestigious high-rise buildings, the demand of the architects and the contractors begins to replace the conventional curtain wall system which is constructed via stick construction technique, with panel curtain wall system which is applied to the building in a modular form . The main aim of this study is to investigate why the panel curtain wall system comes to the forefront especially for high-rise buildings. Accordingly, the basic architectural, structural and constructional design principles of unitized aluminium curtain wall systems are defined, analyzed and then the advantages and disadvantages of this system are pointed out from an architectural point of view. In order to evaluate the performance of panel curtain wall system against environmental factors, the facade tests, which are new and still-developing methods in Turkey, are used. The extensive facade tests have been conducted on full-scale specimen under field conditions reproduced in an equipped test chamber by authorized facade testing company and the assessment of this curtain wall performance was provided accordance with related standards. The two story full-size specimen, was 3000 mm to 7600 mm, belongs to one of the prestigious office towers constructed in Istanbul. The facade tests conducted to the specimen include watertightness, air permeability, wind resistance and building movement tests. In this study, the performance criteria of panel curtain wall system were investigated not only against environmental factors but also against human sourced factors. It is expected that this study will provide a guideline for system designers on the future research and development phase and for architects on the selection of curtain wall systems for their buildings due to the conducted test results and other advantages taken throughout this study.

This thesis studies two related topics in liner shipping. The first topic is the contract pricing problem for container carriers. The second part studies the interaction of the longer term contracts and the spot markets/exchanges for the same goods/services. Most containerized freight is transported under the provisions of medium term contracts between ocean carriers and shippers. One of the biggest challenges for an ocean carrier is to find optimal ways to structure the prices in those contracts. In particular, an ocean carrier would like to set the prices such that the best match between supply and demand can be obtained to maximize its profit. We propose three optimization models as decision tools that carriers can use to plan the contract price structures, as well as the anticipated freight flows and empty container flows for the period covered by the contracts. Based on the models, we propose algorithms and build decision tools that generate the following output: optimal prices to be charged for the movement of freight, the anticipated freight flows and empty flows, containers to be leased, rented and purchased, and the additional voyage capacities to be procured. The first two models are deterministic and represent the problem at different levels of detail. In addition, a three-stage stochastic model is proposed to handle uncertainties in demand rates, costs, bookings and transit times on feeder arcs. Recent developments in information technology and communication make spot transactions more economical and more convenient. Nevertheless, the incidental spot transactions still count for only a very small portion of freight transported both by the large carriers who are the leaders in implementing e-commerce and in the industry as a whole. The second part of the thesis studies models to provide insight into the effect of spot market participation rates on various economic quantities. This may have implications for freight transportation industries, such as the sea cargo industry, in which longer term contracts are still prevalent. We focus our study on the following situation. Option contracts are signed before the demand is observed. As is common in liner shipping, sellers (carriers) also sell goods/services on the spot. Buyers (shippers) may or may not buy in the spot market as a matter of policy. We investigate the effects of spot market participation on the contract market and on the surpluses of all market players. It is found that the contract market shrinks as more and more buyers participate in the spot market. However, the effects on the surpluses of different market players are much more complicated and depend on the following factors: market structure, demand variation along time, demand variation among buyers and capacity level.